Brad Cochi Inside the Colorado Dugout: Interview with Owen Lockner of Windsor High School

WINDSOR – With his future in the sport of baseball set and an impressive prep career’s worth of statistics to his name, there aren’t a great many things left for senior Owen Lockner to achieve in high school.

But there is, however, on very big thing left of the Windsor senior’s to-do list. That would be bringing the Wizards their first state championship.

Having played in three of the last four state tournaments, the Wizards were eliminated by eventual champion Valor Christian on the penultimate day of last year’s Class 4A state championships. It left a bitter taste in Lockner’s mouth to have come so close only to be prevented from achieving his ultimate goal.

Now that they’ve moved up to 5A in 2019, chasing down the championship trophy won’t be any easier for the Windsor boys.

The way he has been playing so far as a senior this spring, however, Lockner’s determination might be just what the Wizards need to finally capture the state title that has so narrowly eluded them for the past several years.

“We’re playing for the state championship,” Lockner said. “We all want it. I mean, this is my last year here so I want it bad. I want it real bad. That’s our goal for this year and we’re determined to get it done.”

Playing varsity baseball for the first time as a junior last season, Lockner emerged as one of the state’s top players, batting .386, pitching to a 0.39 ERA with six saves, and breaking out in a big way with a four-home run game against Mesa Ridge on April 17, 2018. Through the first 13 games of his senior campaign, the six-foot, 175-pound righty is slashing .525/.565/1.075 and is sporting a ridiculous 1.640 OPS. He leads the Wizards with three home runs and 17 RBIs, has scored 15 runs and has 12 extra-base hits.

A model of consistency and a dynamic offensive threat, Locker has reached base in every single game this season.

On the mound, Lockner’s fastball is sitting between 87-88 miles per hour and topping out at 89 this spring. That explains his minuscule 0.72 ERA. Now a full-time starter, Lockner has struck out 46 batters and given up just nine hits over 29.1 innings.

Locker’s two-way production is a major reason the Wizards are 12-2 and have risen to No. 3 in the PBR Colorado Power 25 rankings.

“The team has been playing really good,” Lockner said. “We’ve been scoring a lot and pitching well. Everybody’s been doing their job and we just need to keep working hard, trying to get better every day, and doing what we’re doing.”

As well as the season has gone, the Wizards have not been immune to hiccups. On Tuesday, they fell 7-3 on road at Longmont in a game that snapped a 12-game win streak and certainly won’t help their RPI score.  

Though Tuesday’s loss stung, Lockner insisted that he and the Wizards remain focused on the big picture.

“It was just kind of an off day,” Lockner said. “Things didn’t go our way and we didn’t make the plays we needed to make. We just made little fundamental errors. But overall, I didn’t think we played horrible. I just thought that one inning kind of got away from us and we couldn’t really get back. Tuesday wasn’t our day but it was just our second loss and I don’t see it setting us back. We’re still going forward.”

Ranked by PBR Colorado as the second-best third baseman and the 23^rd overall prospect in the state, Lockner has committed to play baseball at Odessa College next season. He will be a right-handed pitcher for the Wranglers.